Darcus Beese says he hopes people are made to feel uncomfortable by documentary

Amy Winehouse‘s former A&R man has said he hopes that the new documentary Amy: The Girl Behind The Name makes people feel “embarrassed” for “murdering” the late singer.

Darcus Beese, who is president of Island Records and used to work with Winehouse, told Billboard that the film shows how the singer was treated cruelly by the media during her career. “She was ill. You had people who had praised her and now they were murdering her,” he said. “Hopefully, when they see their faces on the screen they’ll feel embarrassed.” He later added: “The film was an eye-opener. I didn’t realise we were signing a girl who was broken.”

Mark Ronson also spoke about his history with Winehouse, including their time recording music together. Paying tribute to her talent, he said: “We have this stereotype of young Mozart. Lightning strikes his head and then he furiously ­scribbles for two hours and has a concerto. She’s the only person I saw who was ­actually like that.”

Winehouse passed away in July 2011 at the age of 27. Amy, which is directed by BAFTA-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia (Senna), was screened at Glastonbury Festival last weekend and is set to be released in cinemas on July 3.

PressAmy Winehouse

The singer’s father, Mitch Winehouse, recently claimed that the documentary tries to portray him in “the worst possible light”, revealing that he ordered the film to be re-edited upon viewing its original cut. Kapadia, however, has since responded to his criticism and insisted: “I think this is a film about her and about what went on around her and the people around her. We knew that there would be people who would not like certain things.”

He added: “How can you go into something with an agenda, if when I started, I didn’t know any of the story, or the people? I’m not in the music industry. It was just a question of talking to the people and seeing what the story was. It took a while for people to talk.” You can watch a trailer for the film at the bottom of the page, and read NME’s review of the film here.